Consensual
by Canadino
Summary: In which Jack tries to answer the age-old question: if it's underage but consensual, is it considered rape? Ralph and Roger do nothing to help. Jack/Simon


**Disclaimer: The only thing I own is the story idea and only some of the witty remarks. I own so little; so please don't steal.**

Background music: -

Consensual

Jack knows he probably shouldn't ask the question, but the wherewithal only introduces itself after the words leave his mouth. He makes a mental note to wait even after thinking before talking. And anyway, he should have known better and not have asked at all, since they were in the school library even if he and Ralph were secluded in a quiet corner. Still. He regrets it just as the syllables puncture the air. "If it was underage but consensual, would it be considered rape?"

Ralph stops writing for a moment, his eyes reading over his hastily done piece of homework due next period before continuing in his messy scrawl. "Is there something you should tell me about Simon, Jack? It's best to say it early."

"What? _No!_" Jack hunkers down further, as if shrinking in size will reduce the embarrassment he's feeling thinking about the subject. It wasn't even what he was getting at. He wasn't thinking about _doing the deed_ with Simon; it was the furthest thing from his mind, but Ralph had just inserted it in the front. "It was just something I was always wondering."

"I hope you used protection. He might not be able to finish middle school if he gets pregnant."

"He couldn't get pregnant even if we _did_ do anything!" Jack knows he is blushing as red as his hair and he knows it is what Ralph wants, because the blonde in front of him is shaking with suppressed laughter. Why did he spend a free period with this kid? Why does he ever?

"In all seriousness, I don't think it matters unless the authorities are brought into it," Ralph says calmly, checking his textbook for a fact. "I'm sure a lot of kids in your year are doing it and they're not being arrested."

"But isn't it illegal?"

"What's that stopping anyone?" Ralph looked up briefly, deviousness in his blue eyes. "In fact, the more illegal, the more I'd want to do it."

"You're such a delinquent."

"What're we gossiping about, girls?" Like a sudden scent, Roger appears out of nowhere and collapses into the chair next to Jack. Ralph puts down his pencil and puts his hands together and Jack knows the two are going to gang up on him. He wants to leave, but that would mean they won.

"Sex."

"_Oh_?" Roger turned to Jack with over exaggerated interest, a suggestive glint in his eyes. "Tell me more."

"Why would you immediately think it was me? Why wouldn't you ask Ralph?" They're backing him into a corner. This isn't fair! He's the oldest out of the three, a couple months older than Roger, and yet he's the one put most at unease.

"Psh." Roger waves the suggestion away with irrelevance. "Ralph has nothing that would interest me. You, on the other hand, are indulging yourself in a forbidden relationship with someone four years your junior. I think that's proof enough whatever we talk about is about _you_."

Jack scoffs and is about to push his chair back when Ralph rushes on. "He wanted to know if making love with an underage minor is illegal if it was consensual." Jack winces. Ralph loves to use the most awkward phrases. He shouldn't let it get under his skin but he always does.

Roger looks even more interested. "Oh my, Jack. Jack Merridew, head choir boy, turning his back on the church? Giving in to his animalistic desires?"

"Stop making it sound so perverted! I didn't even do anything."

"But I suppose it makes sense," Roger muses on. "I mean, if _I_ were in that position with Simon, I wouldn't hesitate to deflower him either."

"True," Ralph agrees, tapping the pencil against his chin. "If Jack wasn't taller and older than me, I would have taken Simon too."

"_Will you two stop that_?" The images (he isn't a voyeur! Why is he thinking about it?) flood in; Roger kissing Simon the way he did, feeling Simon lean into him, making his clothes too hot and tight to be comfortable…Ralph easing Simon onto the bed, whispering comforting words as the younger boy writhed underneath him… "_Stop_!" He realized, too late again, than he had spoken when no one else had before him and he flushes again as Roger and Ralph snicker.

"You set yourself up to it!" Ralph points out.

"It shouldn't be," Roger says, finally getting back to the original point as Jack tries to pile books to separate himself from them. "I mean, unless Simon goes up to his mum and says, 'Mum, I just slept with Jack Merridew.'"

"That's awful," Ralph chides, but he's laughing too.

Jack is already starting his escape when Simon slinks into view and spots them, jogging up to the table before he can make motions to say _stop_! "What's so funny?" he asks, clutching at his books as he looks back and forth from Roger and Ralph.

"Simon," Roger says, taking the boy's shoulders as Jack tries to sputter an admonition, "Jack is planning on doing the nasty with you soon, so you should be aware that a surprise attack could come at any time."

Jack finally follows through with one of his impulses (not animalistic, really!) and chucks a hardcover at Roger's face. He hopes Ralph laughs so hard that he wets himself. Simon stares at Roger clutching his face, then at Jack, smiling timidly.

"It will be my first time…so be gentle with me, okay?"

Jack thinks about how his computer at home crashed because it overheated and he thinks it will happen to him, because suddenly he replaces Roger and Ralph in his dirty daydreams of Simon (no, gross, that's not what he thought!) and when Simon laughs, he realizes it's now three against one.

"That's…not going to happen any time!" Jack stumbles into his excuse before completely thinking it through. "I'm not having sex before I get married!"

Instantly Roger and Ralph are upon him, grabbing him and forcing him to his knees. "Marry me, Simon!" Roger says in a very rude (and frighteningly accurate) rendition of his own voice. "As soon as possible!"

"In fact, we can just elope!" Ralph says (thankfully in a worse imitation of him). "Then we can get straight to business!"

Simon giggles, hugging his books tighter as he steps up to Jack. "I accept your proposal," he says sweetly, before quickly stealing a kiss. Roger and Ralph erupt in catcalls, making the old librarian come to find the source of all the disturbance.

"What're you lads up to?"

"Ma'am," Ralph says, turning on the charm for all his fourteen year old self. "We were just trying to tell Merridew find enlightenment for a question he had…it's _very_ important and vital to his life."

"His _sex_ life," Roger specifies.

Jack does not wait to be shown out. He leaves on his own accord, and he thinks that if he walks fast enough, he can get out of the building and into the next county before nightfall.

End

Note: I need to stop thinking perverted thoughts while I'm at work. Seriously. But this talk will have happened. It's a school full of boys. It's _bound_ to happen. Someday, I will get back to the original island setting, but until then, I love my AU!


End file.
